The Archive: ‘not a vault but a bridge connecting generations’
Despite the attraction of a Beyoncé concert elsewhere in London, the top floor of Bush House had a good crowd for the AMSR annual event. Thanks to the Policy Institute at King’s College London for providing such a grand venue – and thanks to Rebecca Cole for our headline quote (read on)!
Richard Asquith, CEO of AMSR, opened the proceedings by thanking the outgoing CEO, Adam Phillips, for getting us to such a strong place. He also thanked OvationMR and TestSet for their generous sponsorship of the evening.
He reminisced about a 100 year old research report on Pears Soap from JWT research department; which became BMRB; which became Kantar – and you can see why we need the Archive!
His term is going to start off by concentrating on harnessing AI to improve the Archive, getting full Archive Accreditation, pushing further into schools and ensuring long-term funding. No pressure!
Richard Asquith
Professor Patrick Barwise, Chairman of the Trustees, paid respects to the late Liz Nelson who was a founder and great supporter of the AMSR. Paddy is particularly proud of how many universities are already using the AMSR for teaching and research.
Professor Patrick Barwise
The engaging Stella Moss, Historian at Royal Holloway UL, told us how she is using the Archive both for teaching second year undergraduates and for her own research on booze. She highlighted the Peter Cooper research on the world of the Guinnless (if you don’t know what she is talking about then head off to our redesigned website at www.amsr.org.uk – but not until you have finished reading this – and you may already be reading this there!). She made the good point that the Archive may be the only source of some research documents that have not been redacted in any way and so can be valuable source material for historians.
Stella Moss
Liz Watts, AMSR volunteer, explained how our website has been updated to make it easier for universities and schools to get quickly to the relevant sections. Liz stressed the importance of engaging the next generations in market research – they are both potential employees and our respondents. The Archive provides not only valuable material for modern history, politics, sociology, economics, media studies and more, but also creates an excellent platform to learn the skills that students will need as they move on to university.
Liz Watts
Alan Kunna, London Brookes College, and Carina Ancell also picked up on the importance of developing skills in independent researching and thinking that their pupils will need in life. But as well as their wise words they brought along three of their students to talk about their studies on voter behaviour, drawing on documents from the AMSR. They were truly inspiring and living, breathing demonstrations of why the Archive is a vital thing to support. They were evidence of the success we have begun to have and the difference we can make in the future when good educators get their hands on good material.
Alan Kunna, Carina Ancell and their three sixth form students
Rebecca Cole, MD Cobalt Sky and MRS Chair designate, set out a polished manifesto for why the Archive is important to the future of the MR industry. She left no room for anyone not to be able to support our efforts: if you have money you can support the AMSR financially; if you have data (old and current) you can donate it to the Archive; if you have skills or tangible assets you can loan them to the AMSR; if you have time you can encourage and enable your employees to volunteer; and if you have none of these you can spread the word in and around the industry as well as follow, like and share on Linked In. No hiding place! She gave a lovely description of the Archive as ‘not a vault but a bridge connecting generations’ (I might use that one!).
Rebecca Cole
To wrap up Judith Rose, AMSR volunteer, oversaw a Q&A with Paddy and Richard. Lots of good questions but two things worth drawing attention to. Guests from OCR (they set the exam questions) explained how important it was that the material we have can fit in with the school syllabus and they generously volunteered to help (this is exactly the attitude that Rebecca was encouraging – hope the industry was listening!). It also emerged that following the demise of the COI a huge amount of Government social and market research is now missing. So if you are or were a civil servant or you had anything to do with the COI take a look in your cupboards and loft. If you find any research documents from those days, please send them in to us (donation button on the website) – discretion assured!
Q&A: Judith Rose, Professor Patrick Barwise and Richard Asquith
As you would expect, alcohol, nibbles and pleasant mingling helped to round off a thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening evening. Many thanks to all the volunteers who make the AMSR and particularly those who made the evening run so smoothly. Thanks to our speakers and all those guests who turned out; I think they had a better time than going to the Beyoncé concert.
A video link of the Event is now on the AMSR portal website: www.amsr.org.uk/videos
Contributed by Paul Edwards
Date posted: 17th July 2025
Photos by Jane Bain and Steven Carter